Phased and Confused: Redux
by emcey squared
Summary: AU Where "I Do, Over" never happened and Nathan didn't get engaged to Allison. Jack/Nathan. Jack worries that the klutzy hero will cause the town problems while Nathan finally realizes just what he's feeling for the trouble-magnet Sheriff really is.


Disclaimer – I don't own Eureka. If I did, I'd have latched onto Ed Quinn's ankles and begged him to stay. And… the main pairing would be Jack/Nathan instead of the funky triangle they had for so long…

A/N I'm not going to do this for every episode, but I will do a lot of these little 'reduxes'. For every redux, assume that Allison turned down Nathan's proposal and the time-loop of 'I do, Over' never happened.

Pairing – Jack/Nathan

Teaser – When a superhero shows up in Eureka, Jack worries that the klutzy hero will cause the town problems while Nathan gets pissed off that the masked man has been stealing GD prototypes.

_**Phased and Confused: Redux**_

_Alternate scene one – This starts while Lexi is in the medical section of GD after escaping her car at the antenna station and takes the place of the last half of that scene as well as Jack's encounter with the flying rabbits._

Nathan walked up behind Fargo and latched on to the back of his collar, starting to drag him away from Chuck, Allison, and the two Carters. "Fargo, where's Zane?" he asked as soon as there was a little distance between them and the rest of the group. He gave Fargo a little shove as he released his assistant's collar in order to force the geeky scientist to face him.

"Um… Miss Thorne said she had him doing some sort of special investigation outside of town. Why?" Fargo straightened his glasses and smiled fawningly over at Lexi Carter.

"Congratulations, Fargo, you get to take over handing out cyber kinetic comlinks to the official list of beta-testers." Nathan smirked as Fargo spluttered about how he was already busy. "I was going to have Larry do it," Nathan drawled, "but then I found out you've been spending most of the day not doing your job."

"But, I…" Fargo trailed off with a big sigh. "Fine." Chuck was walking towards the door, so Fargo followed the recycling man out of the ward.

Nathan started to head back towards the Carters and Allison when he heard Jack's worried, "how much radiation was she exposed to?"

"Your average microwave oven," Allison responded, waving her hand slightly in a 'give-or-take' motion. "Um, she's… she's fine. Why?"

Carter glanced at his sister questioningly, which made Lexi look irritated. "What Sheriff 'Subtle' is trying to tell you is that I'm pregnant." She shrugged her shoulders and smiled a little, but her next words sounded a little bitter. "Mmhmm, his unmarried sister is knocked up."

Jack winced and his jaw tightened the way it always did when he was trying not to say something that would land him in an argument. Allison, however, was acting oblivious to the issues between the siblings as she congratulated Lexi for her upcoming motherhood and Carter for becoming an Uncle.

Nathan stepped forward before he missed his chance. "Good morning, ladies," he smiled at both Allison and Lexi, and then turned to Carter. "Henry tells me you've got competition, Carter."

"A moron in a blue suit and mask is not competition," was the immediate response.

"He saved me," Lexi objected. "The only problem you have with Captain Eureka is you're afraid he's going to steal your thunder."

"Well, from Henry's description, Carter's 'thunder' isn't the only thing that's been stolen. The boots he was using sound like they were copied from a GD program that was scrapped a while back." Nathan interrupted before the siblings could consider fighting.

"Hold on… Captain Eureka?" Allison parroted Lexi's name for the guy Henry had described as a 'blue menace' in an incredulous fashion.

"More like Captain Incompetent. My problem with him is that he's probably going to 'save' someone to death." Carter sounded genuinely worried… not that his sister noticed.

"Just because the guy wears a mask and a cape doesn't mean he's a dangerous lunatic," Lexi protested, giving her brother a 'why are you being stupid' glare.

"In this town it does," Nathan said, surprising the two Carters. "It also means that he's stealing GD technology."

"Which would make him a dangerous, lunatic thief," Carter added, briefly giving Nathan a grateful look.

"Do you have any idea who it might be?" Allison asked.

"No idea," Carter shrugged. "All I know is he could fly. That project," Jack turned his full attention to Nathan, "what was it?"

"Dr. Gaus is working on flying rabbits now…"

"Rabbits?" Lexi repeated, giggling.

"Winged rabbits?" Jack asked, also smirking.

"No, they look like normal rabbits," Allison snickered. "They levitate."

"Like superman?" Carter was starting to snicker at the idea of 'superman' rabbits.

"Careful Carter. The last time you made a 'Superman' reference, you wound up turning invisible." Nathan directed the conversation back to the origins of 'Captain Eureka's' flight capabilities. "Before Dr. Gaus was assigned to this project, he was working on what were effectively rocket boots. He called them the Skywalker 2000s, but the prototypes were scrapped for being unpredictable and prone to cutting out in midflight."

"Yeah, the boots did seem a little shoddy," Carter agreed, his gaze darkening with irritation. "He landed on my car and then tried to take off about three times before the boots worked right. The paint got scorched off." Suddenly he brightened a little. "You don't think that maybe Dr. Gaus is Captain Eureka, do you?"

Shaking his head negatively, Nathan told Carter, "no, he's been in his lab all morning trying to keep Taggart from freeing the rabbits."

"Taggart was trying to _free_ the rabbits? That sounds… very out of character of him."

"Well… he might have been trying to steal the rabbits," Nathan amended. "After he accidentally tranquilized himself, his accent was that much harder to understand with him slurring all his words."

"Is he okay?"

"He's sleeping it off in his lab," Nathan waved his hand negligently. "Anyway, anyone with access to GD's records room could have built a pair of the Skywalker 2000s."

"That's a lot of potential suspects."

"He's not a criminal, Jack. He just wants to help." Lexi was glowering at her brother, which Nathan found ridiculous. Didn't she realize that Jack was worried about her?

"He's a vigilante, Lexi! If he wants to help, there are other, _legal_, ways to go about it."

Rolling his eyes, Nathan turned around and walked out. He needed to track down Fargo, just to make sure that he didn't slack off again.

_Scene Two – Nathan shows up with Fargo when Jack get's the cyber kinetic comlink._

"Sheriff," Fargo shouted, perking up at an excuse to escape.

Nathan had been attempting to get a progress report from Fargo on one of the many projects his assistant had been assigned to oversee. Fargo, of course, had been attempting to evade actually giving a report and, with the appearance of Carter, Fargo had found a good excuse to put Stark off. So as Fargo scurried over to Jack and Allison, Nathan sauntered up as well.

"I heard about your radio woes and I have the answer to your problem," Fargo proclaimed, holding up one of the cyber kinetic comlinks.

"An aspirin…" Jack didn't sound particularly impressed. "I could use it."

"Actually, that would be a cyber kinetic comlink," Nathan corrected.

"Say goodbye to your old, broken down radio and cell phone and hello to modern convenience." Fargo's tone grew lighter as he attempted to convince the Sheriff to try the comlink.

"I don't like the sound of that."

"Is there anything at GD you _do_ like the sound of?" Nathan challenged rhetorically. "Thorne stuck you on the list of beta-testers so it would be used in the 'real' world."

Carter accepted the comlink and followed Fargo's instructions. "Ow…" Jack twitched slightly, then yelped louder and started to double over in pain.

Suddenly worried and not really thinking about what he was doing, Nathan reached out and grabbed Jack's arm, keeping the Sheriff upright as Jack shouted and jerked in pain again. "Are you okay?" he asked, trying to ignore the way his heart had begun to race and the fear that Fargo had screwed up in some way that could really leave Jack hurt.

"Yeah… that hurt," Jack responded and then reached up with his free hand to touch the spot he'd left the comlink.

"It burrows into the skin. Isn't that cool!" Fargo grinned impishly.

Self-consciously, Nathan dropped his hands away from Jack's arm and stuck them in his pockets. The fear that Fargo had messed up left him, but Nathan still felt like his heart was beating too fast. Glancing over at Allison, he saw her staring at him oddly. He quirked an eyebrow at her, as if to silently ask 'what?'.

"No, not cool." Carter winced and glared at Fargo.

Allison shrugged and smiled innocently. "It's actually amazing technology," she told Jack. "It taps into the synapse activity. All you have to do is think about the person you want to call and say their name."

"Like 'call Stark'?"

Nathan's phone started ringing and, with a smirk on his face, Nathan answered. "Stark."

"I can hear you in my head. That's… creepy."

"Better me than Fargo," Nathan said and then hung up the phone.

Jack shuddered. "Good point."

Allison's smile morphed into a decidedly evil grin. Nathan concluded he didn't really want to know what she was thinking.

"Call Zoe." Carter yanked his hand up as a blue, electric spark danced across his fingers. "It shocked me!"

"Uh, yeah, there's still a few kinks. Just avoid names that start with a 'Z' or an 'A'… or anything with an umlaut."

"Fargo," Jack began in a very calm voice, "get this out of me. Now!"

"You know what? Just try it out for a few days." Fargo patted Jack on the shoulder and then hightailed it, calling over his shoulder, "I'll get those progress reports to you by the end of the day, Dr. Stark."

Allison laughed and strolled off as well.

"This isn't funny. That thing really hurts," Jack whined.

"It can't be that bad, Sheriff. Besides, shouldn't US Marshals be capable of taking a little pain," Nathan teased.

"A little… a _little _pain," Jack spluttered. "If it's such a small inconvenience, why aren't you testing one?"

"The last time Fargo had me test something out that linked into my brain, an army of nanoids attempted to conquer Eureka." Nathan shrugged, "aren't you the one who's always counseling people not to tempt fate?" He turned and headed towards his office.

"Well, yeah, but… it's not a little pain, okay? It's a visible spark of electricity… and now my hand's gone numb." Jack hurried to keep up with Nathan.

"It utilizes a small amount of your own energy in order to work and turns your body into the antennae," Nathan explained. "You're probably just short-circuiting."

"_I'm_ short-circuiting?" Jack drawled angrily. They both got on the elevator as the scientists getting off moved faster than normal to avoid the Director of Science. "This aspirin sized cell phone shocked me when all I wanted to do was call Zoe." Another jolt of electricity jumped across his hand as the elevator doors shut on them. "God dammit!"

Reaching out, Nathan caught Jack's hand in his own and rubbed the center of Jack's palm with his thumbs. "Stop being such a baby."

Carter's face flushed slightly. "I-I'm not being a baby. I just… uh… prefer it when my phone doesn't electrocute me or… um…" he blinked distractedly and floundered for his train of thought. "Or… make me look crazy when I'm talking on the phone without having a phone in my hands."

"Look, Carter, take your sister home, try calling a few people, and first thing tomorrow I'll get medical to remove the comlink, okay?" The elevator opened and Nathan released Jack's hand. "Better now?"

"Huh?"

"Your hand…"

"Um, right, thanks."

Nathan stepped out of the elevator and it shut behind him, taking the confused Sheriff away. He leaned backwards against the door and ran a hand through his hair dazedly. "_What_ am I doing?" he muttered softly.

_Scene Three – Instead of calling Zane, Carter calls Nathan instead…_

Nathan absently picked up his phone, more to stop the irritating ringing noise than for any real intention of paying attention to the caller. He was trying, without much success, to completely shove Carter out of his mind because, ever since Allison had refused his proposal, Nathan couldn't seem to stop watching the Sheriff. With Nathan out of the running for Allison, Jack should have simply swooped in and gotten the girl. Instead it was business as usual between the two of them.

Something felt like it had shifted between himself and Carter, though. Nathan just couldn't seem to identify what had changed and that bothered him to no end.

"Stark."

"Hey, it's Carter," Jack greeted brightly. Nathan managed to reign in the urge to groan. "The pumping station on Magnesium Road has a major leak. I talked to Henry and he said you would be able to shut it off remotely from GD."

"The rocket fuel station?" Nathan was already calling up the pumping station control program on his computer. "Try to breathe shallowly; that fuel can be toxic if you inhale too much."

"What?!"

"I'm sure you'll be fine, it takes a lot of exposure before even the most minor effects are noticed, but you and your sister should come back to GD to get checked out." Nathan typed in his override command and the screen showed that the fuel pump had deactivated. "It should be off now."

"Yeah, well it isn't."

"Give it a few seconds."

Jack waited in silence for about half a minute before saying, "Stark, it's still pumping out rocket fuel. Are you sure the control program is working right?"

"Obviously it isn't," Nathan ground out, glaring at his computer screen as he keyed in an order for an immediate response team to head to the Magnesium Road Station. "I'm sending out a repair crew. You should get back to GD, now." The sound of an explosion cut off any response Carter might have made. "Carter? Are you alright?"

Silence…

"Carter!"

Still nothing…

"Jack!" Nathan stood up and started towards his office door.

"I'm fine," Jack finally responded. "I'm not sure what, but something set off the rocket fuel."

"I gathered that," Nathan responded dryly.

"Oh no, not that idiot again," Jack complained. "Captain Eureka just showed up."

"Do you recognize his voice?" Nathan waited impatiently for the elevator. Even though he was talking to Jack, he felt this irrational need to see for himself that the Sheriff was fine.

"Not really. Though, since he's trying to be a hero, he's probably disguising his voice." Jack's voice changed as he yelled at Captain Eureka, "oh no, please don't help. Seriously!"

"What's he doing?" Nathan got on the elevator, growing more impatient as it slowly shut the doors.

"He's got some sort of super lawn blower or whatever and is trying to put out the fire, only it looks like he's gonna set the grass on fire," Jack described and Nathan could only imagine what it was that Captain Eureka was playing with now.

"Sounds like yet more stolen GD tech," Nathan grumbled.

"Oh no!"

"Jack?"

"My car… he toasted my car… so he's a bird and a fireman… and a ghost?"

"Carter, there are no such things as ghosts."

"I know that. It's called being sarcastic, Stark. Captain Eureka just walked through the gate like it wasn't even there."

"He walked through the gate," Nathan repeated. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah, more stolen GD tech, huh?"

"Sounds like it." Nathan walked out into the hub and headed for GD's exit. "I'm going to come get you and your sister, okay? Just… stay there."

"Right…"

Nathan hung up the phone and then jumped at the feeling of someone tapping his shoulder. Allison raised an eyebrow and fixed Nathan with her patented 'I'm curious and you're going to tell me what I want to know' stare. "Something happen to Carter?"

"The 'superhero' struck again. There was a leak at the rocket fuel pump on Magnesium Road and Carter's car got burnt," Nathan shrugged. "Apparently, Captain Eureka displayed a few more GD toys and I want a full description from both Carters so I can figure out what else the moron's stolen from us."

"And you're going to get them personally because you'll find out that much faster?" Allison shook her head slowly. "That's not it at all, Nathan. You're worried about Carter."

"Allison, I'm not worried about Carter."

"Then why aren't you waiting for someone else to fetch him like you would with anyone else?" Allison waited a moment for Nathan to answer, but he didn't. "Exactly. You care about him. You care a lot more than you're willing to admit. Most of the time, you're very in tune with yourself and what you want, but sometimes Nathan… you can be a typically oblivious guy. Though lately, especially today, you've gotten less so."

"What are you trying to tell me, Allie?" Nathan glanced impatiently over at the exit.

"Just go get Jack and Lexi," Allison admonished with a laugh. "You'll figure it out on your own, later."

_Part Four – After Jack realizes Captain Eureka wants to impress Lexi but before he convinces her to be bait._

"Carter!" Nathan managed to flag down the Sheriff verbally, to his relief. "Have you seen Fargo? He's supposed to be giving me some reports… what is it?"

"Actually, I just saw Fargo. He's doing a bang-up job of avoiding you, huh?" Carter's blue eyes lit up with amusement and he laughed a little.

Nathan swallowed reflexively as his mouth suddenly went dry. Fighting the urge to adjust his collar, he wondered if someone was messing with the temperature controls because he was suddenly feeling a little warmer…

"I think Captain Eureka is trying to show off for Lexi," Jack continued. "Fargo agrees with me; in his capacity as the 'super hero expert', he said that there's always a girl that the hero wants to impress."

"That sounds about right," Nathan found himself agreeing. "Since you're sister's always around when Captain Eureka shows up, she probably is the object of this guy's desires."

"Yeah, well, I've got an idea to get this guy to break cover, but… I'm going to need a ride." Jack flashed Nathan his most charming smile. "I don't suppose you could drive me to Café Diem, to the bunker, and then bring both Lexi and me back here? Or are you busy, 'cause I could probably get Henry to…"

He felt like his heart had skipped a beat or something when Jack turned that megawatt grin on him and it left him hard pressed to speak normally, but he managed to cut off Carter without sounding too breathless. "No, no it's fine. Until I get those reports from Fargo, I don't have anything important to do." Gesturing towards the exit to GD, Nathan added, "if Captain Eureka weren't so incompetent… and blatantly stealing from GD, would you have such a big problem with him?"

"I don't know… I was never a big fan of comic books," Carter admitted, falling into step with Nathan. "I mean, I like Superman, Batman, and the X-Men, but most of the time the heroes make cops look like idiots. And, well… law enforcement officers put their lives – and their identities – on the line every time they're on the job. We get held accountable for our actions, but superheroes hide who they are and when they screw up, who's supposed to make them own up and do their best to fix it?"

"I never really looked at it that way," Nathan admitted. "And here I thought you joined the US Marshals because you wanted to be a superhero," he teased, though it was more of an afterthought.

Jack laughed anyway. "Earlier, Allison said something about how all scientists used to want to be superheroes. So… which one was your idol?"

"For a long time it was Ironman," Nathan answered honestly.

"The genius Tony Stark," Carter filled in. "Why does that not surprise me? So, what changed?"

"He was always partying." Nathan shrugged. "I don't like parties. I didn't like his approach to relationships, either."

"When I was a kid, my favorite was Batman because he did actual detective work and he sort of cooperated with others." Jack grinned brightly again and Nathan, again, started to feel a little warm. "Mostly, though, I liked how resourceful he was. The minute he realized the gadgets he had weren't cutting it, he made them better or created something new."

"He invented things," Nathan said quietly.

"Must be why I like it here in Eureka so much."

Finally, what Allie was saying earlier clicked and Nathan fought not to feel ridiculous. It was Sheriff Jack Carter, after all, and there was no way that Doctor Nathan Stark could possibly…

Nathan shook his head to clear his mind, smiled, and snarked, "well either that or you're just crazy."

Jack's face flushed slightly under Nathan's smiling gaze. "Maybe a little of both."

Carter was acting a little flustered, which had always amused Nathan. Right now, though, he was finding the idea of a flustered Jack Carter to be something entirely different from amusing. In fact, Nathan was finding Jack's reaction to be attractive and perhaps a bit endearing.

Allie was never going to let him live this down.

_Part Five – Let's swap Nathan for Allison when Jack decides to use the phase shifting device to save Zoe._

"Why is it that when I finally track down Fargo and start getting work done that I wind up being the last one to know you've decided to do something life threatening… again?" Nathan tried to keep the irritation out of his voice but he'd finally figured out how he felt about Jack and he didn't particularly relish the idea of Carter dissolving away into nothing before his eyes. "There is a fusion reactor cutting laser we can have in place in a few hours to…" Nathan trailed off upon seeing the look on Jack's face. "There has to be another solution Carter."

"There isn't enough time." Jack shook his head and bit his lip for a few seconds, a sure sign that he wasn't looking forward to shifting out of phase either. "That's my daughter in there, Stark. If it were Kevin, you'd be the one trying to get in there using this," he tugged on the phase-shifting vest, "to get him out."

"Yeah, I would," Nathan agreed unhappily. "But we don't know how to fix you once you start phasing on your own."

"You can figure it out once Zoe is safe," Jack waved his hand negligently, as though the cure was already assured.

"The original scientists who made this couldn't figure out how to reverse the process and they had all the data available to them," Nathan objected. "We're working on tracking it down, but right now… Carter…" Nathan's chest was starting to feel too tight. There had to be a way to keep Jack from risking himself like this. "Jack, I can't…" Nathan trailed off, not sure how to end the sentence.

Surprise, and something else that Nathan couldn't identify, flickered across Jack's face. "You're not going to lose me," Jack said quietly. Nathan inhaled sharply, but didn't deny that was what he'd been getting at. "Look, Nathan, if something happens, I'll be stuck in a door… easy to find, right?"

"It's not funny, Jack!" Nathan voice was louder, more forceful than he'd intended and he knew that Chuck, at the very least, was now following their conversation with interest. "Two scientists have already died because they couldn't stop the phasing!"

"They didn't have Henry, Allison, and _you_ to work on the problem. Have a little faith in yourself; normally your ego is larger than GD, what happened?"

Nathan shook his head slowly and answered, "everyone at GD is now more afraid of Thorne than me. I miss having people cower in my presence."

Jack laughed and looked truly amused. "You and your power trips." He snickered a bit more before returning to a more serious expression.

"I'll go," Chuck spoke up, attempting to get up off the lighted bed that was keeping him from completely phasing apart. His hand went through the bedside table and his whole arm seemed to flicker as some of his arm moved more slowly than the rest.

"Don't get up," Nathan snapped. "You're practically breaking apart. You're in enough trouble for stealing prototypes that were slated for deconstruction and not 'recycling' as it is. Why don't you just stay put and try not to kill yourself?"

Chuck winced and lay back down, but added, "I want to help."

"Easy, Chuck." Jack tilted his head so that Nathan had no choice but to stare into Carter's worried blue eyes. "Let me take this one. It's Zoe," he repeated.

"Fine." Nathan felt his chest constrict further even as Jack said "meet me there" and took off with the vest.

"He'll do fine." Nathan turned to stare blankly at Chuck, who was clearly attempting to be reassuring. "I always felt really brave in that suit."

"He doesn't need the suit to be brave," Nathan said and twisted around to leave, though he added in a softer voice, not meant to be heard, "or a hero."

_Part 6 – Carter goes to save Zoe_

"We programmed the transmitter for ULF, so you should be able to hear us," Fargo said as he made a few more adjustments to the cyber kinetic communicator.

Jack nodded absently and glanced at the entrance to the underground lab with an agitated expression. He already had on the vest and needed only to turn it on and start walking.

"The chances for decoherence increase with the density of the material," Henry warned Jack. Henry looked worried for the Sheriff and it suddenly hit Nathan that Henry was finally back to treating Jack the way he had when Carter had first shown up at Eureka. After Kim's death, there had been a strange sense of distance between them, at least on Henry's part, that had finally faded away.

"Got it," Jack told Henry, though he sounded lost. Looking over at Nathan, he asked, "what did he say?"

"The steel doors are going to force you out of phase faster and you'll probably be like Chuck in a very short amount of time." Nathan clenched his hands into fists and tried to calm down his internal panic. Jack had faith they could fix him when everything was done and everyone trapped inside the facility were safe. All they had to do was prove him right.

"Got it," Jack repeated in a surer tone.

"The steel will adhere to you, so no matter how much it hurts, you have to keep moving or you'll leave pieces of yourself behind," Henry cautioned.

"I'd hate to think what Deputy Lupo would do to us if we sent Carter back to the Sheriff's office in pieces," Nathan muttered. Fargo snorted softly, trying not to laugh despite how scary the reality would be.

"Once you're inside the room, the generator switch should be straight ahead," Thorne added.

Lexi grabbed onto Jack, pulling her brother into a hug. "And Jack? Please don't screw up," she whispered, though in the small room everyone could still hear her. Jack just pulled her close for a moment and then backed away.

"Thanks." He smiled a little at Lexi and her worried expression relaxed a fraction.

"Be careful," Allison said.

"I'll do my best," Carter promised and then walked up to the closed entry.

Nathan swallowed and forced his hands to unclench so he could shove them in his pockets. His breath caught in his throat when Jack turned and looked back at him one last time before turning on the vest, testing his hand through the wall and then walking through.

"Ugh!"

"Are you okay?" Nathan demanded, his eyes flicking between the closed door and the transceiver.

"All in one piece… that really hurts." Jack's voice was a little rough, but his tone gained strength when he repeated "that hurts". A few minutes later there was a quiet noise and then the words "two down".

Henry winced and then spoke up about the inner doors being thinner, but Nathan tuned out Henry's voice in order to focus solely on Carter. There was another pained yelp heard, signaling that Jack had powered through yet another door. Henry issued another warning, telling Jack that the final door would be the toughest and most painful yet.

"Last door…" Jack echoed in relief and then he was crying out. Nathan's hands were immediately out of his pockets and back into fists and he visibly flinched at the sound. "I'm in. Turning off the vest off."

"The deactivation switch should be somewhere on the panel," Henry reminded Jack.

"I'm looking… ah… intrinsic field generator A." Jack started to sound more excited as he added, "I got it. Start! That's my kind of button." Unfortunately, fear and disappointment quickly followed. "Uh… tiny problem. My hand just went through the console."

"He's phasing on his own," Fargo said in a faintly panicky tone.

"We didn't think it would progress that fast," Nathan responded, though he was really meaning _I_ instead of _we_. Mentally he berated himself for overlooking the obvious; Carter was a trouble magnet so of course the phase shifting would be faster than predicted.

"Yeah, well it did. So what are we going to do?" His voice was still hopeful; Jack hadn't given up on saving Zoe.

"We're working on it, Jack," Henry promised.

"Hey, guys, I'm pretty far in. Couldn't I just call Zoe?" Jack yelped again.

"What was that?" Nathan spoke at the same time as Henry.

"Nothing… just Fargo's stupid phone." Fargo grimaced guiltily. "I swear if I still have hands when I get out of here…"

"You could jump the circuit." Nathan hadn't even realized he'd had the idea until he'd interrupted Jack before he could launch into a good, stress relieving, 'threaten-Fargo' rant. Seeing the startled expressions around him, Nathan elaborated. "You could use the burst of electricity to jump the circuit. There's a fifty-fifty chance it could fry the circuitry or turn everything on."

"I don't really have much of a choice," Jack agreed.

"If that fries the circuits, though, he'll never be able to turn on the generator in time," Henry started to object and then shook his head, "but there's no time to try anything else or fight over ideas."

"Okay… here's to flipping a coin." There was a pause and then… "call Zoe." Faint noises could be heard from behind the sealed door. "Doors are open!"

The door's seal slid back and Nathan let out a breath he hadn't noticed holding. Now all he had to do was fix Jack.

_Part 7 – After Carter gets nowhere talking to Thorne_

"I told you that you'd find a solution."

Nathan looked up from his computer. He'd retreated to his office in order to drown himself in work and get ridiculous ideas, like Carter returning his feelings, out of his head. Except here was Jack making everything difficult.

"I guess I just needed the right motivation." Nathan mentally cursed himself. That hadn't been what he'd meant to say. He'd meant to blow Carter off with some super snarky comment.

Jack grinned. "Aww, I knew you cared."

"Carter…"

"I think I liked it better when I was Jack to you." The Sheriff wandered around the desk until he was on the same side as Nathan. "When I first met you, my first impression was of how attractive you are and my second impression, after you actually spoke, was of what an ass you can be. But that's just your way of keeping out the world and staying safe, isn't it?" Not giving Nathan time to think of a response, Jack leaned over and kissed him.

For a few seconds Nathan sat there, dazed, and then his brain kicked back into gear and he was kissing back. One hand snaked up behind Jack's neck while the other rested on Jack's waist.

"Oh my god. I thought you said you were going to ask him for a ride home!" Zoe's voice caused Jack to jump back a little and Nathan to roll his chair away slightly. The blonde girl smirked at the two of them, who both blushed slightly. "It could be worse, I suppose. However, break my dad's heart, Stark, and Jo will help me bury your body where no one will find it."

Lucas tugged worriedly on Zoe's arm while Lexi laughed. "Should you be threatening Dr. Stark? Should I be making certain I'm not hallucinating?"

"We'll get a ride from Allison," Lexi said, pulling Zoe away while Lucas followed in shock.

"Get my dad home at a decent hour!" Zoe yelled over her shoulder as she let Lexi drag her off.

Jack just sort of stood there with sheepish, stunned, and apprehensive expressions flitting across his face. Nathan stood up, closed the small space between them, and said, "you're daughter is kind of odd, but she really loves you." Jack nodded and opened his mouth to say something, possibly about Zoe or to avoid a feared rejection. "When I first met you," Nathan leaned over so that he was speaking quietly in Jack's ear, "I was so jealous." Shivers shuddered down Jack's spine as Nathan slipped his arms around Jack's waist. "I just wasn't sure who I was more jealous of: you or Allison."

The second kiss was a little clumsy at first; their noses bumped twice. But they figured it out. There was passion driving them and the hint of… something more.

It was the start of… well… everything.

A/N – I have to say, this might not be such a temporary idea after all. After seeing "Here Come the Suns", I kept imagining Nathan there. KitKatt0430 said something about claiming that episode, though, so she'll be treating us next. I'm not to certain about the ending, so this might get rewritten later. I intend to leave Zoe in the ending if I do a rewrite later. Also, I figured Pilar had gone home, but Lucas might have stuck around as his girlfriend's moral support… only to have his brain fried by the image of Jack and Nathan making out. :) So that's why he's there and the whiny one isn't.


End file.
